Anti-Israel protester punches Jewish Columbia student, talks about Nazis and Hitler in anger over flag snatching

An anti-Israel protester slapped a Jewish Columbia University student in the face Monday while yelling about Hitler and Nazis, police and the victim said.

Jonathan Lederer, 22, joined his brother in an anti-Israel demonstration outside the Ivy League school’s Morningside Heights campus when a keffiyeh-wearing protester snatched an Israeli flag from his brother’s hand and forced him inside, he told The Post. Prepared for. ,

He said the clash began when Lederer – whose ancestors were killed in the Holocaust – was surrounded by protesters who accused him of being an infant killer for his support of the Jewish state.

“I said, ‘No, I don’t. I really want a two-state solution. I think there’s too much death on both sides.’ “I want peace,” Lederer told the agitated crowd.

But protesters erupted again: “Jews have no history in this country. You stole our land,'” according to Lederer, who studied computer science at the school.

One animal reportedly spewed more anti-Semitic venom – comparing Lederer to a Nazi and shouting, “You guys have done everything Hitler has done” before snatching the flag from his brother and taking it down.

The brothers pursued them, begging to get their flag back.

“Then he turns around and punches me in the face, on the right side of my face,” the student said.

The violent protestor then fled north on Clairemont Avenue, police said.

This is the second time Lederer has been attacked during a protest outside the university, he said.

Protestors threw stones in April, hit him in the face After setting fire to his Israeli flag.

Lederer thinks little has changed University since then.

“They have no moral backbone,” he said of the school administration.

“They are trying to protect themselves with these half-baked statements,” he said, adding that the school should “de-identify” student-led anti-Israel “hate groups.”

Lederer, whose great-grandfather was killed in the Holocaust, called the latest act of violence “grotesque.”

“It turns any factual statement on its head.”

“I’m telling him I want peace and coexistence and he’s calling me a Nazi,” he said.

“It’s very disappointing.”

Police released a video of the attacker shaking his finger at the victim before the attack.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the hate crime.